


tfw you're drawing and accidentially merge the wrong layer

by gaylie



Category: Fellswap - Fandom, Underfell - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Drug Use, Drug Withdrawal, M/M, adding tags as fic progresses, all the Main AUs mashed together, dystopia au, probably gonna have several fontcest ships, tagging them as they come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-01 04:48:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10181042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaylie/pseuds/gaylie
Summary: In which the timelines collide, causing about as much damage as timelines merging together should, although probably even still less, and it's obviously monsters whom the humans blame for that. A second war blossoms up and every monster that managed to stay alive so far has to pretty much consider themselves lucky.





	1. Ich sach dir, des war ne BOMBEN Stimmung, ey!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literal Translation: "I'm tellin' ya, it was a BOMB mood, ey!"  
> Translation: "I'm tellin' ya, it was a blast, ey!"  
> Meaning: It's literally just a bomb pun that would've worked just as well in english, but I sure do love my german bomb puns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know what im doing, i dont know what to title this fic and i shouldnt be writing aNOTHER DAMN FIC IN FIRST PLACE

The timelines collided. Not all, of course, but a good handful of timelines just _collided,_ mashed together into one. It was as if you took a used film of an old camera and just put new photos on top of that, and that times four. Or five? Maybe three? Nobody even _knew_ because everything was a huge mess of places, people, buildings appearing and disappearing and melding together, falling apart, dying, the world was left a battle field of things that should and should not exist.

And it was the _child_ _'s_ fault. You know the one. _The_ _Child_ , capital letters, add a ™ for aesthetic if you will. Nobody had any _proof_ , of course, but _who else's_ fault could it have been? _Who else_ was playing with time and timelines like it was nothing but a game to them. Like everyone's lives _didn't_ matter, like they _didn't_ deserve to live in a functioning timeline where time just _went on_. Period. Just kept progressing forward, forward, forward, not the other way, not _ever_ , because it wasn't _supposed to._ It just didn't make any _sense_ , didn't work out, and the result was here clear as day, in form of everyone ever suffering.

The best was- _The absolute best_ was that _humans_ blamed _monsters_ of course. Because monsters had magic, and obviously time-fuck-ups meant magic. And it wasn't like it'd been _human_ _sorcerers_ locking monsterkind underground with, by the way, _magic._ And even _when_ some of the lucky ones that knew what was going on tried to explain it'd been a _human child_ that caused all of this, or maybe the human child of all the different timelines that collided, then people just called them crazy. Not that it happened a lot anyways. Only on long nights, when they managed to find a place safe enough with enough booze to get drunk out of their minds, drunk enough to think people would _understand,_ would _listen_ , would get their fucking _head_ out of their goddamn ass and assume every bad thing ever was caused by monsters.

But something like that was _expected_ to come from a monster. Never trust a monster. It's not a _coincidence_ , after all, that humankind hadn't exactly been using the word 'monster' to describe their every-day-John. Monsters were known to be vicious, man-eating beasts that read your mind and could do all kinds of awful shit with their magic. Like, you know. Having a body, breathing, living. The kind of stuff humans used physical matter for. But monsters didn't, they were different and therefore bad.

Needless to say, after only having spent three years on the surface, two or one or maybe four for the other timelines, the second human/monster war broke out. At first it was less of a war rather than a high number of hate-crimes towards monsters. Then _The_ _Crash_ happened, the crash where all the timelines collided, like a roof giving in to the apartment above, going on in a chain until the top apartment crumbled on top of the pile of rubble, and. Well. Everyone had been terrified, confused, scared and pretty much living on the streets now. Only a few homes managed to survive, and those quickly got taken over by powerful humans. _Monsters_ immediately became everyone’s mortal enemy.

So they had to live hidden, as loners, small groups of two or three, or in small villages here and there. Living in a village, of course, immediately made your life more dangerous. It made it _easier_ , more comfortable. You had a home, usually a simple income of food, water, warmth, what you needed to live. You had people around you to help you out. But the larger the village was, the more monsters there were on one spot, the _easier_ they were to be found out by humans.

And a village spotted by humans was soon to be in ruins.

So that's why, when Kid came running, shouting about how they'd seen a handful of humans spying on their village, Sans immediately took Papyrus by the hand and _ran._ Papyrus didn't understand at first, but he _did_ understand the gist of the situation they were in, so he didn't question it. He was already about to pick Sans up to carry him, the smaller skeleton already because of the shortness of his legs being much slower, when Sans stopped him.

"there's no time for that," he'd said, looking nervous, on the edge. "just _run_ , alright?"  
"SANS, YOU'RE GOING TO SLOW ME DOWN."  
"well then-"  
"I'M _NOT_ LEAVING WITHOUT YOU," Papyrus insisted even before his brother could say what he _knew_ he was gonna say. Sans sighed, sounding stressed, but knowing well he couldn't win this.

"fine, but i'm also gonna slow you down if you carry me. just run and don't stop until you can't run anymore, 'kay?" He tried to explain, nudging Papyrus a little to get him going. Papyrus hated to make him wait even more, but,

"WHAT ABOUT YOU?"  
"i'll be fine," Sans told him quickly. "i'll be right behind you. teleportation, i'll manage, promise. just run and _don't_ go back, don't _look_ back. it's not safe anymore."  
Papyrus understood. He nodded, turned around and began running. It wasn't until a good bit later that he heard an explosion, the shock wave of it _almost_ knocking him down, filling the air with dust and dirt. Trying to breathe he ended up coughing awfully, but that didn't slow him down at least. In fact, he seemed to just speed up at the prospect of the village having gotten _blown up._

He wasn't sure how long he'd been running for until he finally slowed down a bit, still moving, though. Had it been minutes? Hours? Days even? He was in the middle of a thick forest, and sometimes day and night just seemed to jump at ho-and-fro, another thing caused by the timelines colliding, so it was really hard to tell.

Papyrus was sure he’d been speed-walking for almost as long as he’d been running for, before he finally slowly got to a stop, slumping down. He _couldn’t_ anymore. His legs wouldn’t support him, his eyes drooped almost immediately as his pelvis hit the ground. He could fall asleep just like that, then and there, but not quite.

“SANS, I’M REALLY TIRED,” he whined a little. “CAN WE TAKE A BREAK, PLEASE?”

He opened his eyes again when no reply came, looking at the vague direction where Sans had to be, yet… there was no one. “BROTHER?” Papyrus asked, feeling his soul growing anxious. “SANS, THIS ISN’T FUNNY!”  
Despite how tired he was, he pushed himself off the ground, looking around. No, no, _no!_ He couldn’t be gone, he _couldn’t_ have lost Sans! He said he’d be right behind him, he _promised._

He must be somewhere back there, Papyrus realized. Maybe he tired himself out faster than Papyrus is and took a break already. He had to get back, he had to find him, _yet._

‘ _don’t go back, don’t look back,’_ he’d said. _‘it’s not safe anymore.’_

Papyrus swallowed down a sob.

“SANS IF- IF THIS IS A PRANK-” He had to find him, he _had to get him back._ But Sans _told_ him not to go back, and- and the _explosion._ It _wasn’t_ safe there, he didn’t want to see what the village looked right now, didn’t want to see how much of the dust in the air had been natural and how much had been from monsters.

Maybe even from Sans.

No. _No!_ Sans wasn’t dead! He _promised!_ He probably just took a bit longer, he _was_ slower after all. He just had to wait. He had to wait and Sans would find him eventually and they would stay together from then on, so something like _this_ would never have to happen again, not that _this_ was anything, because everything was fine, Sans was just a bit slower.

“I’M GOING TO WAIT FOR YOU SANS,” Papyrus called into the woods again, unable to keep his voice low. “PLEASE HUR-”

He couldn’t finish what he meant to say. His legs got kicked off balance, causing the tall skeleton to fall to his knees. Small hands suddenly covered his mouth, someone behind him hissing,  
“ARE YOU _TRYING_ TO GET US FUCKING KILLED, YOU MUTT!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyway im going into this with hardly any plan aside from who's together with who (but I might even change that until the other characters actually appear), so if you have any requests or ideas hmu  
> any characters from the classic-, swap-, fell- and swapfellverse can appear  
> ships?? hell yea  
> smut?? hit me tf up  
> but also, not shippy-stuff?? dude hell yes


	2. Besser Arm dran als Arm ab, ne?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literal Translation: "Rather arm on than arm off, huh?"  
> Translation: "Rather poor than arm off, huh?"  
> Meaning: The word 'poor' and 'arm' are almost the same in german, therefore the saying is a pun that's supposed to tell you that you're rather poor (arm on/keep your arm) than to lose an arm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> finally a new chapter lol  
> wow okay so i'm, for now, not gonna at trigger warnings in chapters, but if anyone needs me to in future, just tell me pls!
> 
> also by the way?? the fic title is like, probably super temporary lol, same with the chapter titles MAYBE? im rn too lazy to think of a proper name and all i can think of for a fic name is "*shrek voice* layers" and "You reblogged on the wrong layer" bc im absolute garbage, but im gonna change it to maybe just Layers later (i actually like that name for some reason? been calling it that in my head)  
> but if i can get the chapter titles a theme, i might keep titling them after german sayings/puns/lines that fit :D will also translate them in the summary from now on
> 
> this chapter is longer than the last, which was pretty short  
> i rewrote it like two times so!! im pretty happy with the outcome tbh

If it wouldn't be for the hand blocking his teeth, Papyrus would've sucked in a breath. He _knew_ that voice.

" _SANS_!" He gasped, muffled through the gloved hand. Hold on- gloved? Sure, Sans wore fluffy mittens sometimes, especially when they still used to live in Snowdin, but those were leather gloves. Probably custom-made ones, too, considering the small size of the hands and how perfectly they seemed to fit. Sans didn't _wear_ leather gloves, didn't even own any, let alone _custom made_.

"NOT THE ONE YOU'RE HOPING FOR, LOUDMOUTH," Sans, but not _his_ Sans, said. He removed his hands from Papyrus' mouth and made his way around him so the taller could finally examine him properly.

Sure enough, it was _a Sans_. He had the right height, the same shape of bones, the voice. But his style of clothing was much less baggy, making him look less chubby and lazy. His black shirt, there seemed to have been some bright pink text on it once but Papyrus couldn't recognize it anymore, was torn and tied up to end right where his rib cage ended. The jeans he wore looked surprisingly new and clean and ended in a pair of bright pink heeled boots.

He looked like he'd been through hell and back, but not even necessarily because of his clothes. No, Papyrus imagined _his own_ looked much worse. But this Sans' bones were... scarred almost all over, the most obvious scar being a couple of slashes right across his right eye socket. It _did_ seem to be still working, though.

"YOU'RE FROM-"

"A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, TIMELINE, DIMENSION, BLA BLA. I KNOW," this Sans interrupted him oh-so-rudely. Papyrus would've huffed offended usually, but he was still too shocked about the situation at hand.

He'd _never_ seen a version of himself or Sans before. His brother had told him they exist, probably, but the world was big and monsters were all over the place, so how likely was it for them to meet?

Pretty likely, actually, given the fact that monsters _weren't_ actually 'all over the place.' They never really had the chance to spread very far away from Mt. Ebott region and therefore only a few monsters lived farther away.

"NOW GET UP AND AWAY FROM HERE, PRONTO!" Sans commanded roughly, looking at Papyrus as if he was expecting him to obey without a second thought.

Papyrus didn't.

"I CAN'T, I'M WAITING FOR MY BROTHER."

He heard the other Sans hiss out a sigh, hanging his head as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with a finger.

"LISTEN, BOO, I'VE SCOUTED THROUGH THIS PLACE THE MOMENT I HEARD YOU SCREAMING LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. HE'S NOT HERE. HE'S NOT GOING TO _BE_ HERE ANY TIME SOON. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT WILL BE?"

Papyrus looked at him quizzically, tilting his head a bit like a puppy.

"HUMANS, YOU MORON!!!" Sand _almost_ shouted, yet not quite. “YOU’VE PRACTICALLY BEEN _SCREAMING_ YOUR LOCATION AT THEM, _TELLING_ THEM YOU’LL BE WAITING HERE FOR GOD-KNOWS-WHO TO COME AND KILL YOU FOR EASY EXP!”  
“BUT-” Papyrus began, frowning a little hurt at the aggressive tone this Sans was giving him, mixed with the thought how _badly_ he wanted his brother to be here. “THERE AREN’T ANY HUMANS HERE???”  
“I HAVEN’T SEEN ANY, TRUE THAT,” Sans admitted, starting to pace a little. “BUT- YOU’RE FROM THE EASTERN CAMP, AREN’T YOU?”  
Again, Papyrus could only stare at him confused. Sans let out a stressed sighed.

“BIG VILLAGE, ABOUT NINE HOURS FROM HERE? YOU CAME FROM THE DIRECTION.”  
“OH YES!” Papyrus replied, lighting up a bit at the mention of his village. “IT’S VERY NICE THERE!”  
“WELL, NOT ANYMORE, CUPCAKE. IT BLEW UP.” Oh. Right. “SO THERE _HAS_ TO BE HUMANS AROUND SOMEWHERE, AND I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT _I’M_ NOT TAKING MY CHANCES.”

A little panicky Papyrus scrambled up suddenly, when he saw the Sans leaving. He almost called out for him again, almost told him to wait, before he took a step back. No, he couldn’t. Why would he? He hardly knew this monsters, this Sans, and what would he even want from him? It wasn’t like he could beg him to take any of the things he said back.

Papyrus couldn’t _believe_ him either, though. It wasn’t like he assumed the other Sans was lying! It just was that he _knew_ Sans had to be around somewhere and he had to just wait for the smaller, slower skeleton to catch up. _This_ Sans had probably just missed him while scouting!

And- well. Shouting into the open might not have been the wisest idea, Papyrus realized that now. But what were some silly humans going to do to him! He was certain he could convince them of a peaceful alliance if they would actually manage to find him.

He… hoped so at least.

 

It was night when Papyrus returned to his camping spot. He had left probably roughly half an hour after the other Sans left, unable to keep still for a long period of time. He figured, if he was going to stay here for a few days, he was gonna need things. Food, a source of water, something to keep his bones warm. So he went scavenging.

He kept in mind, of course, that Sans could show up at his camping spot any minute and left him a small message carved in the tree. He was sure his brother would spot it and wait there for him! Maybe he was waiting there right now.

He found many things on his trip. There was a small stream of water not too far away. In fact, Papyrus was convinced that it was the same stream that ran through their village- well, old village. It probably didn't exactly exist anymore. But the stream was a great source of clean water.

He found several berries he recognized and a few nuts. He wasn't sure how this was going to suffice for a whole dinner for two people, but it somehow had to. Maybe Sans even brought some food himself! He probably did. Sans was always so thoughtful and seemed to be prepared for everything. That's why Papyrus was convinced he knew exactly what he was doing and they were soon to see each other again.

Papyrus soul almost jumped in joy when he came closer to his camping spot. He couldn't quite see it yet, but he clearly heard someone rustling from that direction!

"SANS???" He called quickly, overly excited. His step turned into a jog, then a sprint, then stopped abruptly.

Wait.

Oh no.

The Great Papyrus has been japed!

He wasn't sure how this could have happened. Sans usually didn't put that much effort into pranks, he stuck to small things, whoopee cushions and the likes. Yet here he was hanging in a finely crafted trap of sticks and ropes, a few feet above the air.

"UHM," Papyrus began awkwardly. It wasn't like he had problems seeing in the dark, yet he couldn't spot anyone around. "EXCUSE ME??? IS ANYONE HERE? THIS IS RATHER UNCOMFORTABLE."

"NO SHIT." A bone sliced finely through the top of the net, having Papyrus quickly fall heavily to the ground. The other Sans didn't seem to be in the mood to waste a second, running towards Papyrus to almost _force_ him up.

"SANS???"

"WE'VE GOT TO GET GOING," he pushed, glancing around suspiciously. "THEY'RE EITHER HERE AND DAMN GOOD AT HIDING OR THEY'RE ABOUT TO COME."

"WHO IS???" Papyrus had no idea what was happening, but was following Sans anyways. The quickening of the other monster's voice set a slight panic in his bones, he could sense something was wrong. "WHAT IS GOING ON?"

"ARE YOU ACTUALLY THIS DENSE OR JUST ACTING?" Papyrus didn't know what he was talking about, so Sans groaned in annoyance. "THAT WAS A HUMAN TRAP, MORON. THEY SAW THAT CUTESY LITTLE MESSAGE YOU LEFT AND DECIDED TO PREPARE TO CAPTURE YOU."

"THEY... WANT TO CAPTURE ME???" Now why would they do _that?_

"EITHER THAT OR KILL YOU."

Oh. As bitter as that was, that actually seemed to make even more sense to Papyrus. Humans... seemed to have a tendency to do that.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" Papyrus asked in an attempt to change the topic.

Sans looked around once more suspiciously, then lowered his voice. "My camp."

Papyrus wasn't stupid. He was naive, sure, a little dense sometimes. He would admit that. Alone. To himself. But he wasn't stupid and he could tell that it was crucial right now to keep quiet because, "what if they're following us right now?"

Sans didn't reply, but led a finger to his teeth in a motion to tell him to be quiet. Papyrus obliged, and almost immediately could feel an arm wrapping around his waist. Suddenly the floor disappeared underneath his feet. He panicked, almost. This wasn't anything like the teleporting his brother would do sometimes, wasn't anything like the gravity magic _he_ would do sometimes. It was almost as if this Sans literally just jumped up far too fast for Papyrus to process. With one free arm the smaller of the two quickly stabbed a bone in the bark of a tree, using it as leverage to jump higher, until they were surrounded by small branches and leaves.

Papyrus meant to ask what in the stars just happened, but Sans was already moving again, jumping from branch to branch. So he followed clumsily. He had no idea how the smaller skeleton could even tell where they were, he could barely see the ground below them. He was making way too much noise compared to Sans, but the other didn't seem to be too bothered by it, so Papyrus hoped it wouldn't be a problem. He had a lot of talents, but jumping from tree to tree wasn't exactly one of them.

It felt like ages passed until Sans finally stopped moving. He clung against one of the branches, seemingly waiting for Papyrus to catch up.

"YOU NEED HELP GETTING DOWN, OR...?"

"OH," Papyrus replied a bit surprised. "Y-YES ACTUALLY, THAT WOULD BE VERY NICE!"

Sans seemed to have expected that answer. He wrapped an arm around Papyrus again, before climbing down the stem of the tree.

How a skeleton that small could carry Papyrus was far beyond him.

"THIS IS IT," Sans explained once they reached the ground and he let go of Papyrus again. Papyrus did a quick look-around.

"THIS IS YOUR CAMP?"

"IT IS," the smaller confirmed, moving towards a collapsed tree. It seemed to be hollow, but sturdy enough for the small skeleton to sit on it. Maybe skeletons jught weighed far less than Papyrus had always just... assumed.

The 'camp' looked rather empty. He wasn't sure what he had expected. Another village? A house? Maybe at least a tent? But here they were in that smallish clearing in the middle of a forest, nothing but a hollow collapsed tree trunk there.

"IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY," Sans explained him, noting the taller skeletons confusion. "IT'S NOT VERY SAFE OR HIDDEN EITHER, SO I'M MOVING TOMORROW."

"M-MOVING?" Papyrus asked with a hint of anxiety. "WHERE TO?" Something about losing this skeleton left him with panic. No, that was silly. It didn't matter where this Sans went, Papyrus had to get back to his own camping spot soon anyways! He would wait a bit, of course, for the humans to lose interest, but he would have to get back eventually to find Sans.

"A CAVE," Sans supplied curtly. It didn't seem like he wanted to reveal too much information. Papyrus respected that. "I SAVED YOUR ASS SO THE LEAST YOU CAN DO IS HELP ME GET SOME FIREWOOD."

"O-OF COURSE!!!" Papyrus quickly replied. "THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS VERY THANKFUL, BY THE WAY!"

Something about the way he worded that seemed to make Sans freeze up for moment. He gathered himself together again quickly.

"DON'T GO BACK DOWN THE PATH WE CAME FROM. ONLY COLLECT DRY WOOD," Sans instructed him. "IF YOU HEAR SOMETHING AND THINK IT'S THE HUMANS, SHOOT A BONE UP. IF IT'S AN EMERGENCY, MAKE IT A BLUE BONE."

"O-OKAY...?" Papyrus replied hesitantly. Something about the way this Sans talked made it sound like he's already used to these techniques. Maybe he had an acquaintance before.

That made Papyrus think. This _was_ a Sans in front of him, so he _must_ have or have had a Papyrus at _one_ point. He wondered what happened to him, but was almost too afraid to ask.

"I... I WILL BE LEAVING NOW! I'LL MAKE SURE TO REMEMBER YOUR INSTRUCTIONS!" Papyrus told him determinedly, before marching off.

 

He had never seen someone make a fire without fire magic or some sort of tool before, but here he was, sitting in front of a completely fine campfire, started by nothing put a small stick and a dry leaf. This Sans seemed to really know what he was doing, it was somewhat admiring.

Yet Papyrus worried. "WON'T THE SMOKE ALARM PEOPLE OF OUR POSITION?"

"IT WILL," Sans confirmed. "THAT'S WHY I DON'T LIKE TO LEAVE IT ON FOR TOO LONG. BUT USUALLY THE TREES GIVE ENOUGH COVER FOR NO ONE TO SEE IT FROM DISTANCE."

Well, that was only half-assuring, but Papyrus trusted him.

He hadn't even realized Sans used the hollow tree to store things, until he suddenly bent down to grab something from it.

From his angle and through the flames Papyrus couldn't quite recognize what it was that the other skeleton was getting. Sans summoned a sharpened bone, for a moment startling Papyrus, but he simply seemed to use it to stab whatever he was holding on it, before holding it to the flame. Oh! So it must be some kind of food.

"WHAT IS-" Papyrus eyes widened in recognition. He scrambled back, shocked, scared, disgusted, until his backside is a tree. The thump seemed to startle Sans. He frowned.

"RELAX. IT'S JUST AN ARM," he hissed through his teeth. He almost sounded like he didn't _quite_ believe his own words.

"BUT THAT'S- THAT'S A- H-HUMAN...?" Papyrus felt like he was going to be sick.

"IT'S NOT LIKE I’M SPOON-FEEDING YOU DUST." Papyrus backed off more. "OH COME ON! IT'S THE DAMNED APOCALYPSE, WHAT DO YOU THINK? I'M NOT GONNA DIE OF STARVATION OUT HERE."

"BUT-"

"IT'S EITHER HUMANS OR ANIMALS, PAPYRUS," Sans told him. Well, that was an odd statement. People ate animals, monsters ate animals. How would that be an argument supporting him? "UNLIKE _ANIMALS_ HUMANS ARE ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL US." Oh.

"B-BUT EATING THEM...?" It didn't seem right. _It wasn't right_. Humans were sentient, they were smart and _people._ They were people just like monsters.

"I'M ALREADY KILLING THEM ANYWAYS. IT'S SELF DEFENSE, IT'S NOT LIKE I'M HUNTING THEM. I'M JUST. ALSO NOT LETTING A PERFECTLY FINE SOURCE OF MEAT GOING TO WASTE."

"I'M GOING TO BE SICK," Papyrus said, before running off a bit farther into the forest. He came back after roughly five minutes. Turns out there hadn't been a lot in his system to throw up anyways.

"GLAD TO SEE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE," Sans commented upon his arrival. He was already eating. The meat looked rather tough but Sans didn’t seem to have any problem biting through it with his canines. Oh, there was blood on his teeth. Oh, he felt like he was going to be sick again. “DO YOU WANT EAT TOO OR NOT?”  
Papyrus was aggressively telling himself this was a nice gesture. This skeleton had saved him, had showed him his camp, was allowing him to stay for the time being and offered to share his food. They were in a life-or-death situation, sharing food wasn’t something he could just assume.

He could in no way ever eat _this_ , though.

“N...NO THANK YOU. I THINK I’M GOING TO SLEEP.”  
“SUIT YOURSELF,” Sans replied. He didn’t seem offended. Papyrus was glad.  
The ground was very soft and almost warm. He would’ve fallen asleep rather quickly, if it wouldn’t be for his pesky insomnia and, well. The sudden realization of the smell of human meat in the air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> by the way, i'm gonna make polls from now for the next chapter!  
> so which of the characters in [this poll](http://www.strawpoll.me/12762871) would you like to see?? i only added characters that i somewhat have a plan to already


	3. Hasse Haschisch inner Tasche hasse immer was zu nasche

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translation: (If you've) got hashish in your bag you've always got something to snack  
> Meaning: this is literally just a german tongue-breaker i think. a lot of kids say it bc.........drugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this title was a stretch  
> i was super struggling with it  
> anyway
> 
> since i'm practically winging this whole fic it's (for now) not gonna be in the right chronological order, and this chapter would've happened a few days before the first two  
> enjoy
> 
> (by the way if this is full of errors, please, im sorry, i just got my wisdom teeth removed on tuesday and have been suffering ever since. i've been having a non-stop headache and everythings gross and made the WEIRDEST errors today ALL day it was so frustrating. Tuesday again? Yes Problem!)

 

They dubbed him Edge. Well, it _did_ make sense somewhere. Out of all of them, he figured, he had the most edges along his jawline, teeth, cheekbones. He refused to acknowledge the fact that the name’s origin might come from his ‘edgy’ attire.

It wasn’t like he was the only one with a nickname. After Edge and his brother, whom they oh-so-cleverly named Red, met their weirdly dominance-swapped versions, calling each other ‘Sans’ or ‘Papyrus’ just had gotten too confusing. As a sort of revenge for his own ridiculous nickname, Edge named the other dominant, the other party’s Sans, Swappy.

The one who had gotten off the easiest was Slim.

 

There was danger in wandering around as a big group, but it made them stronger, too. Plus, Edge figured, they couldn’t have teamed up with anyone better. He liked Swappy a lot. He _used_ to anyways.

They were very alike, but also had some big differences. One of the more infuriating ones was Swappy’s quirk with fashion.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW NEW JEANS CAN BE ON YOUR TOP PRIORITY RIGHT NOW, SWAPPY,” Edge had pointed out one time. They’d sought out an abandoned town to grab some things, food, first-aid kits and the likes while Swappy had split from the party to find some clothes that were still in a good condition. He always did that. Edge was pretty sure he’d even come back with eyeliner a couple of times.

“JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE FINE LOOKING LIKE YOU’VE JUST CAME BACK FROM HELL DOESN’T MEAN I AM.”  
“SWAPPY WE’RE _IN HELL_ RIGHT NOW,” Edge argued frustrated. “THIS IS THE APOCALYPSE.”  
“YES, SO???” It was like Swappy could absolutely not comprehend his point. “MIGHT AS WELL LOOK GOOD IN THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE, BITCH.”  
He did look good, though.

“IT’D BE SO MUCH MORE EFFICIENT TO WEAR ARMOR. WE COULD _FIND_ YOU ARMOR, YOU KNOW. HOW MUCH HP DO YOU EVEN HAVE, LIKE TWENTY?”  
“FUCK YOU I GOT TWO LVS THE OTHER DAY. I’VE GOT THIRTY-FIVE HP.” Swappy snapped back offended. “PLUS, WHY WOULD I NEED ARMOR IF I’M _NOT GOING TO GET HIT?_ ”  
The argument ended somewhere around there because, well, he had a point. Where Edge made up with strong defense, high HP and strength, Swappy had the speed and stealth, he was more cunning. People usually didn’t even _know_ Swappy was there before they got impaled by bones. Half of Edge’s deal was scaring people away by being loud and intimidating.

They differed there, but in a way they completed each other.

 

Their brothers had differences too. Edge had… abused his brother in the past. A lot. In a lot of way, a lot of terrible ways. They hated each other for a long time. But just as how the apocalypse destroyed, it also rebuilt their relationship. They depended on each other, without a home now more than ever. Edge loved his brother and, well. His brother had always loved him, even through the abuse, which was sick and morbid in a way, probably wrong on a lot of levels. But they trusted each other with their life.

Swappy and Slim, however… Well. It _seemed_ like they had a lot better relationship at first. Slim obviously belonged to Swappy, more so than Red did to Edge even. He devoted his whole life to him, his soul, his body. Swappy was his god, his religion, his everything. It was fucked up, too, but different than Red, Slim never seemed scared of Swappy. Not once. Not when he got angry or lashed out, Slim trusted his brother, his lord.

He was, however, also never really fully there, was he? He had these blown out eyes, that look that looked like he was just staring through _anything._ Like he was somewhere completely else, or maybe nowhere.  
Red never had that. Red was always at full attention. Call it anxiety if you will, it actually probably was anxiety. A lot of it. But while he put up a lazy front, he was always ready to jump in action if there was actual danger around.

Edge hadn’t missed the pills, of course. He was observing, noticing a lot of small things and filing them away for later. He’d seen them in Slim’s pocket, sometimes seen him swallow some when he thought no one was looking. He’d caught him and his brother smoking out in the woods more than once, it weren’t always cigarettes either.

He didn’t mind it if Red smoked every once in a while. It helped him and Edge knew that. But Slim, Slim had a problem. And Edge wasn’t the only one that noticed, no. Everyone did, especially Swappy.

 

He wasn’t sure what triggered it. Stress? Actual worry? Pent up anger? Probably all of it. But one day when Slim and Red came back from ‘collecting firewood,’ smelling a lot more like weed than like forest, Swappy just. Snapped. Within a split second the tall skeleton was pinned against a tree, bones piercing into the bark above him, next to his neck and chest. Not even his massive heels gave Swappy enough height to quite reach his brother’s neck, but he slammed his arm onto the bark somewhere around Slim’s chest area and glared at him.

“m’ lord,” the tall skeleton gasped out. “what’s wrong?”  
“WHAT’S WRONG?” He sounded furious. Red looked anxious. Edge was curious. “I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO _STOP._ ”  
No one had even _time_ to consider what he might’ve meant as almost immediately the small skeleton dug out every single bottle of pills, every joint, cigarette pack, baggies of other drugs he could find in his brothers pockets and toss them to the ground.

“swappy-” Red began, but Swappy already summoned a blaster. A gasterblaster bigger than any of them had _ever_ summoned before because it was just a huge waste of magic energy. But he fired that thing, the beam practically _evaporating_ all of Slim’s drugs. He almost collapsed once the Blaster disappeared again, but caught himself before.

It was a weird moment. That exact moment when the blaster disappeared and they all just stared at the spot where once Slims _entire_ stash laid. The air was crackling with so much energy. From the blaster, probably, but it felt like it came from Reds rage. It felt like it came from Swappys frustration. And Slim just… he just stared at the spot. He didn’t look angry or upset or anything. He just had that same empty look as always, like he couldn’t quite process what just happened.

“what the _fuck_ is wrong with you, you _**lunatic!?**_ ” Red had yelled, shoving Swappy roughly away from Slim, the other skeleton stumbling ungracefully from magic exhaustion, before catching himself. Oh, he looked more than just offended.

“EXCUSE ME?” His glare was directed at Edge rather than Red. He _was_ his property, his responsibility after all, and Edge should probably stop him, but… he wanted to see where this was going. He didn’t do anything.

“yea, ex-fucking-cuse you. do you have _any_ idea what the _fuck_ you just did!?”  
“HE HAD IT COMING,” Swappy replied, trying to sound calm underneath his bewilderment. “I’VE TOLD HIM TO FUCKING STOP WITH THE DRUGS COUNTLESS OF TIMES. HE KNEW THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN EVENTUALLY.”  
“oh! oh you’ve _told_ him, wow, that makes _such_ a differences!” Red sassed, the tone of his voice almost having Edge chuckle, if this wasn’t a pretty emotional scene. “you have no fucking idea what fucking aftermath this can even have _do you!?_ ”  
Swappy didn’t answer. He either didn’t know, confirming Red right or he did, making his actions probably even less excusable.

“you’re such a fucking _egocentric-_ ” The air was humming with aggressive magic as bones appeared in the air. “ _narcissistic,_ piece of _shi-_ b-boss!” He spun around, the threatening bones suddenly disappearing as Edge laid a clawed hand on his pets shoulder.

“THAT IS ENOUGH,” he warned his brother.  
“boss, d-do you- do you know how _bad_ this can end?” Red looked scared. He looked beyond worried and straight up scared for Slim.

“I DO NOT.” He’s never had any experience with drugs or withdrawal from such. “BUT WHAT’S DONE IS DONE. IT DOESN’T HELP ANYONE TO ATTACK AN ACQUAINTANCE NOW.”  
“You should be _glad_ to still be able to consider me an acquaintance,” they heard Swappy hiss under his breath.

 

He wouldn’t say he had panicked when his brother wasn’t at their camp the next morning, but he was certainly relieved to find that Slim was missing as well. That probably meant they were together and that probably meant they were safe.

It was probably to everyones luck that, when the two of them finally came back, Swappy was out scouting the area for humans or other monsters. Slim looked bad. He looked a bit like Red during his anxiety attacks, but… worse. He reeked of sweat and fear.

They left the guy sitting on the log, trembling silently to himself, as Red pulled Edge a bit further from the camp, still keeping Slim in sight, but out of earshot of them. Probably.

“this is really bad, boss,” Red whispered to him. “he woke up in a panic attack so we went to the river- he threw up like eight times.”  
“What are we supposed to do about it.” Edge didn’t like Slim a lot, personally. But him and Red were really close. He knew Red cared a lot for him and if Red was worried, he… well. He gave a shit at least.

“i don’t know. i don’t know, maybe we can like raid a village?”  
“The only village close-by got taken over my humans, you know that Red.” Red looked at him begging. “No. No, we’re absolutely not going to a village filled with humans.”  
“c’mon, we’re four monsters, we can take ‘em on.”  
“With this trembling pile of bones over there? I don’t think so. Red, this is too risky.”  
“i know, but…” He ran a hand over his skull, groaning. “this is fucking _bad_ , i don’t know what to _do_. he’s gonna die like this.”

There wasn’t anything they _could_ do, though.

 

Swappy wasn’t happy. It pissed Edge off. He had respected the guy. Had thought he was oh-so-clever and knew what he was doing. He ruined his little brother and was now upset with the results.

Slim had gotten them in trouble more than once. To say he was a mess was far beyond an understatement. It was like he was in a constant state of panic attack, anything could set him off. He hardly could defend himself at all, almost getting himself killed three times. His constant random scream-attacks where drawing far too much attention. They had to move camps. They had to move again. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Swappy was sick of it.

They just came back to their camp after getting attacked by some humans, some _teenagers_ even. Usually they would’ve been no problem, but Slim zoned out completely, looking like he wasn’t there at _all_ , like he hardly was even alive anymore, leaving it up to Red and Swappy to save his ass, while Edge took care of the rest. They’d not gotten out of the event well.

They were running short on medical equipment, too. Edge was putting their last rest of clean bandages on Swappy’s cut-up rib when he noticed the smaller skeleton glaring furiously at his brother.

He got up the second Edge was done bandaging him, practically _tearing_ Red away from Slim. The taller let out a terrified whine. _A terrified whine._ That was the first time since Edge had known the two that Slim had actually showed any signs of being scared of Swappy. And he wasn’t just scared. He was _terrified._

“GET LOST,” he growled, almost too quiet for anyone to understand. But he made his statement clear enough by summoning a row of sharpened bones above their heads. “GET LOST OR I’M GOING TO DUST YOU RIGHT HERE AND NOW.”  
This was enough.

“SWAPPY THIS IS-”  
“get the _fuck_ away from him!” Red screeched, trying to tackle Swappy, but getting easily dodged away through blue magic.

“YOU’RE CAUSING US MORE TROUBLE THAN YOU’RE WORTH, MUTT.”  
But, like. The most terrifying thing about this scene was that, as scared as Slim looked, he sounded absolutely certain when he replied. “then kill me, m’lord.”  
He didn’t.

Well, Edge wasn’t sure if he _would_ have, but Red jumped between them before anyone even had time to react.

“no, fuck that. we’re leaving.” He carefully took hold of Slims arm, dragging him along into the deep of the forest.

“but-”  
“it’s better that way,” Red assured him. “c’mon buddy. we’ll manage. we’ll figure something out.”  
We. We, we, _we. Them._

Red was leaving _with_ him. Red, _his_ Red, _his_ brother, not Swappys, now Slims, was _leaving._

“RED,” Edge said, with a warning tone in his voice, although all he felt was… betrayal. But Red looked at him, sad and regretful, worrying. This wasn’t betrayal. This was having to choose between staying and letting his friend die or leaving his brother, and. He loved Edge. He knew he did, and Edge loved Red, but Slim, Slim didn’t deserve this.

“we’ll figure something out,” the small skeleton repeated, this time more for Edge than for Slim. He watched the two of them leave.

“THAT WAS UNASKED FOR.”  
Swappy spun around, looking furious and betrayed. “YOU KNOW EXACTLY I HAD TO DO THIS.”  
“HE’S YOUR _BROTHER._ ” He was being kind of a hypocrite, though, wasn’t he? Back in his own universe he would’ve probably done the same. But that didn’t matter anymore.

“HE’S MY _PET._ HE ALMOST-”  
“DON’T YOU LOVE HIM?”  
Swappy stumbled a step back, almost as if he’d been hit physically. That one shut him up and Edge hoped it was because of guilt.

“WELL, I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR _PET_ IS,” the taller skeleton drawled angrily. “BUT I DO LOVE MY BROTHER. AND MORE THAN THAT AM I LOYAL TO HIM. SO STAY HERE IF YOU WILL, YOU’D MAKE GOOD ON YOUR OWN, BUT I’M GOING TO FIND THOSE TWO.”

He knew Swappy wasn’t following him when he finally left into the forest.

 

Around half an hour passed when Edge realized he had no idea where he was going. He had just been trudging into the general direction of where his brother had left to, but he had no idea from there-on. He should’ve caught up to them by now, shouldn’t he? The two usually didn’t wander as fast, especially Red, having shorter legs and all. Yet there was no sight of them.

That was until an ear-splitting screech disrupted the silence.

Edge recognized that scream. He’d heard Slim scream often enough within the last few day, and while it didn’t _have_ to mean anything serious right now, Edge was panicking. Edge was running. He felt something very bad. He felt dreadful. Something wasn’t right.

Both his brother and Slim were already trapped in cages by the time Edge arrived. They were blindfolded, Slim seemed to have passed out while Red was thrashing wildly in panic, his bones missing their target clumsily. He usually wasn’t like that. He usually didn’t waste as much magic, didn’t throw his bones around like they were nothing. But he was obviously having some sort of panic attack. This was bad.

“RED,” Edge called out naively, hoping his voice out draw the other out of his panic attack, but instead just alarmed the humans.

“Oh fuck, there’s another one.” – “We’ll get ‘im.”

It were two humans, decently armored, pointing guns at him. They obviously knew what they were doing. They obviously were here on a mission.

“Alright big guy, don’t make any wrong moves and we ain’t gonna hurt ya,” one of the humans spoke. This was… a bit of a pickle. Bullets killed. Almost immediately. He couldn’t fuck this up. So he stood still as one of them moved behind him, tying a blindfold around his eyes, handcuffs between his arm-bones. He felt the gun ram into his back from behind him, roughly.

“Move,” he ordered and Edge started to walk.

This was bad. This was really bad. He had to get to his brother but from the way the ground formed underneath his feet, they seemed to bring him somewhere entirely else. Plus he had to get out of this situation somehow in first place.

He knew the guy behind him still had his gun drawn every time Edge slowed down a bit to prompt him to nudge him with the weapon again. It started to piss both humans off, but he had no better way of checking right now. There was no way for him to know of the human beside him, but if things would work out right, he could kill him first, then the one behind him.

He just had to wait until he felt no gun pointing into his back anymore.  
Finally, after what felt like hours of walking, slowing down, walking, he finally felt the rough push of someones palm against his back instead of a gun.

“Stop fucking wasting our time,” the human hissed. “What, are you like sick or something? Hurry. The. Fuck. Up.”  
Edge smirked. He might as well.

It wasn’t too hard to make out the second human’s position from the sound of their steps. It was harder to attack with them constantly on the move, though, and he had only one go at this. No time like the present.

With a single, sharpened bone shooting out of the ground Edge impaled the human to his left. He seemed to have still managed to trigger his gun before dying, but the bullet missed by a long shot.

“What the fu-” Having finally stopped walking, he killed the one behind him in a similar fashion. They didn’t even scream. They died too quickly to even scream.

He summoned a sharp bone to break the cuffs between his arms, quickly undoing his blindfold. He had _no_ idea where he was. His only hope in finding his brother was by backtracking the whole way and trying to find footprints or something like that.

 

Edge was pretty certain he’d been searching for days, now. He found the clearing where the three had been caught within an hour, but there where too many footprints to follow, plus at some points they just _split._

He was wandering without break. He stopped once to drink something from a puddle on the ground, the only water source he could make out, but else he’s just been walking with no end. His magic levels were low. He was tired.

He had to find Red and he had to find him soon, or he was going to die of exhaustion.

When Edge finally heard a noise, a groan, the first sign of sentient living since the past hell-knows-how-many days, he was torn between hiding and just.. giving up. But he couldn’t give up. As tired as he was, giving up wasn’t an option.

So he hid behind a tree, slowly edging his way closer to the source of the noise. He could make out words.

“fuck.” He knew that voice. “fuck, f-fuck, no, no, _no._ ”  
“RED?” He knew that voice. He _knew_ that voice, it _had_ to be him! Relieved and excited he spun around the tree, ready to give up his dignity he held to high to spill some tears. “SANS!” He said, coming face-to-face with.

Oh.

Well.

It was _a_ Sans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if it wasn't clear, Swappy is Swapfell (the one known as Fellswap now) Sans  
> ridiculous name, sue me, but i do what i want qB3c  
> also i might add the Swapfell Bros (the ones NOT known as Fellswap) later, so i'm gonna change the 'Swapfell' tags to Fellswap for now  
> im not actually a big fan of the whole seperation deal going on, especially drama wise (like come ON, everyones swapfell is kind of personalized ANYWAYS), but i sure do love the '''new''' swapfell bros  
> anyways
> 
>  
> 
> [here's the poll on who you wanna see next!](http://www.strawpoll.me/12806045)


	4. Ein bombensicherer Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literal Translation: A bombsafe plan  
> Translation: An absolutely safe plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i changed the last chapters title btw  
> man these are hard, but wow im also like shooting out chapterrs like out of a cannon  
> i really liked this one??

It was night when Captain Undyne had knocked on their door and Blue had gone to open it. He had been asleep and he knew his brother hadn’t been, insomnia and all, but he also knew his brother would be too lazy to get up and get the door himself.

He wasn’t ready for what would be on the other side of it.

“The rescue squad found him today. Got caught by some humans,” Undyne had told him, her voice betraying a slight bit of worry, but kept at a serious level. It wasn’t his Undyne. His Undyne would’ve stuttered at least twice in that sentence alone. But she was cool. She was a cool Undyne.

“IS THAT…?”  
“I believe that’s a Papyrus? I can’t be sure. He’s been unconscious the whole time.” The way she was carrying him over her back, he looked all limb and lifeless. It was hard to believe he _was_ still alive, but he’d be dust if he wasn’t. “I’m sorry I’m pushing him onto you, but we’re short on beds and I thought-”  
“NO! NO, IT’S ALL RIGHT,” Blue had assured her quickly. “WE’LL GLADLY TAKE HIM IN. CAN YOU JUST- ER… MAYBE PLACE HIM ON… THE COUCH?”  
Undyne gave a sharp nod, gently depositing the unconscious skeleton on the couch. “I’m going to tell the medic we have a case here, but I doubt she’ll show up before tomorrow.” _The medic_ was another Undyne. She was more like his, considering her having been a royal scientist before, but she wasn’t _his_ either. She was more sinister. More… cruel. While Undyne, _his_ Undyne was very good with helping sick people, _the medic_ seemed to be a lot better at… He wasn’t even sure. Giving them weird robot limbs. According to the rumors he heard around village, experimenting on monsters in her past.

She hadn’t been good in her past, not at all. But she was trying! After losing everything and everyone she seemed to be ready to try to be a better person, as a lot of monsters from those _bad_ universes were, helping people where she could. She wasn’t the best at it, but she was better than anyone else in their village.

“THANK YOU UNDYNE. I’LL TELL YOU IF ANYTHING IMPORTANT HAPPENS.”  
  
They woke up to screaming. Blue and his brother both dashed out of their room in a blind panic, trying to get to the others room, only to end up crashing into each other.

“ow, fuck…,” Stretch had groaned rubbing his nose bridge in pain. The screaming didn’t stop.

“OH NO!” Blue gasped, remembering their ‘house guest’. He quickly rushed to the couch, the foreign skeleton obviously being the source of the noise. “OH NO! OH GEEZ. HUSH, SHHH, IT’S FINE,” Blue tried, gently stroking along the skull of his brother’s double. “YOU’RE SAFE, IT’S OKAY. WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU. YOU’RE OKAY.”  
He seemed less to actually calm down and more to just get a grip on his reality again, eyes flickering weirdly as if he’d just woken up. He still looked scared, though. Terrified even.

“m-m’lord…?”  
“what the… eff is going on here?” Stretch grumbled, sounding grumpy but also on the edge. “sans, who is that?”  
“UNDYNE BROUGHT HIM LAST NIGHT. HE’S ANOTHER YOU. OH! WE NEED TO GIVE YOU NICKNAMES!”  
“you’re… not him.” The other Papyrus’ voice sounded disappointed. It wasn’t hard to figure out what he meant.

“OH NO, I’M NOT YOUR BROTHER. I’M SORRY.” He gently stroke his skull again. “THE RESCUE SQUAD FOUND YOU LAST NIGHT.”  
“rescue squad…? where am-”  
“southern camp. the one at the mountains,” Stretch supplied quickly. “so you’re a papyrus, huh?”  
“slim,” he’d said.

“huh?”  
“my nickname, it’s… it’s slim.”  
  
For fairness Blue insisted on giving himself and his brother a name, too. Slim was actually the one to suggest ‘Blue.’ Said it reminded him of someone he cared a lot about.

“OH I’M… I’M SO SORRY,” Blue had said sadly, but Slim shook his head.

“ain’t dead yet.” He didn’t sound very convinced, though. “last time i saw him he… tried to help me.”  
Blue didn’t know at first what exactly he needed help with, but they found out soon.

 

The Medic arrived around midday, saying she’d heard the scream through the whole town. But she left almost immediately again. Slim didn’t seem to be sick. Didn’t seem to be hurt or wounded. The blood his tattered coat was covered with seemed to be either old or from someone else. Blue didn’t like thinking about it.

There _was_ something wrong with him, though, and they found out pretty quickly. Just as they were about to get to bed, Slim broke down in a pretty bad panic attack Stretch had to help him through.

He had filed Slim’s nervous fidgeting, the slight twitching away as just a weird habit. Maybe something connecting to some disorder he had. He thought that for quite a while.

Until one day Blue came home from getting groceries. Stretch had given the small skeleton only time to take off his boots and drop his bags, before gently taking his hand and dragging him to his room.  
“WHAT’S WRONG?” Blue asked concerned. “WHERE’S SLIM?”  
“in my room, sleeping,” his brother told him. He didn’t sound very worried. A bit maybe, but not extremely, so things shouldn’t be too bad. “he told me what happened.”  
“WHAT?”  
“while you were gone. he had another panic attack. threw up.” Blue cringed at that. He didn’t like the thought of monsters throwing up. Of anyone throwing up. Always made him feel like joining them. “don’t worry it was in the sink. anyways, he asked me- _begged_ me to get him drugs. any.”  
“DRUGS?”

“someone apparently destroyed all of his’.”  
“WHO WOULD DO THAT?” Blue asked concerned. “WHY?” He wasn’t the biggest fan of drugs, but taking someone else’s belonging and destroying it just was… wrong. It wasn’t _their_ business what others did. Slim was an adult. If he wanted to take drugs, that was his business.

“i don’t know, but he has problems, man. he’s not like me.” Blue knew his brother wasn’t exactly the cleanest either. He smoked on a constant basis, even inside when Blue wasn’t home. And as soon as he found out that weed was a thing on the surface, a thing he could still get, he also did that.  
“ARE YOU PLANNING ON BRINGING HIM TO YOUR GUY?” Blue asked concerned. He wasn’t sure if it was the best idea to give someone who already has a drug problem weed.

“yea, if it helps him. the guy’s a wreck.” Well, that much was true. “i just feel bad for him. he took a lot of shit i can’t get him, but i gave him a pack of cigarettes and plannin’ on getting weed… maybe that’ll just… help him a bit, y’know?”

“I SUPPOSE.” He wasn’t going to out-right condone to drugs, but if his brother thought that was a good decision, he wasn’t going to stop him either. “I HOPE I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING.”

 

He didn’t. At all, but like… it got better. Whether it was the weed or whether it was just time wasn’t clear, but after some weeks Slim got remarkably better.

He got along well with Stretch. Him, Slim and Doggo would often go out on special missions to get cigarettes, weed, rarely other drugs they could find. Sometimes they would also bring medical stuff, candy bars, knick-knack you wouldn’t get on your usual raids. It was somewhat silly and maybe an unnecessary take of risk, but… No one really stopped them. Everyone always excitedly awaited their raids. It made them important in their own way.

 

And then one night Stretch didn’t come home.

Doggo and him had left the village to get some more stuff, with Slim in their town now they were running short on weed quicker. Slim offered to come too, but ended up oversleeping.

“he’s probably just lat-”  
“I KNOW,” Blue interrupted him a bit nervously. It was way past midnight but he wasn’t tired at all. “HE’S JUST A BIT LATER. HE PROBABLY FELL ASLEEP IN THE FIELD. UGH!!! LAZYBONES.” Slim chuckled softly.

When the door knocked the next day, Blue ran to open it excitedly. “PAPY YOU’RE- O-Oh...” It was Undyne.

“I’ve already sent someone out to look for him,” Undyne reported.

“WHY??? HE’S JUST A LITTLE LATE.”  
“Sans-”  
“BESIDES, HE’S WITH DOGGO!”  
Sighing haggardly the fish monster ran a finned hand through her hair. “Dogamy reported to have smelt a handful of humans around the area yesterday,” she said, sounding troubled. “Not too close to the camp to consider evacuation yet, but… We need to be careful. Aside from the scouting squads we’re on lock-down for now.”

Blue nodded hesitantly, jumping a little when he felt Slim’s hand on his shoulder.

“morning, captain,” he said, somehow managing to juggle perfectly between sounding casual yet respectful. “do you need more people for the scouting squads?”  
Undyne shook her head. She didn’t seem to quite trust Slim, no one in town aside from the brothers and Doggo did yet, but he was also still the newcomer. Especially with doubles in town, newcomers often had a hard time gaining everyone’s trust. “No thank you, Slim. I’m sure the dogs got it covered.”  
Slim nodded understanding, before each said their goodbyes.

Stretch didn’t return that night neither. Slim grew antsy. Blue kept telling him they must’ve gotten a little lost, they’ll find back eventually.

Blue hadn’t even noticed he had fallen asleep until loud noises from outside woke him up. It sounded like, what? A parade? A protest? It sounded like a lot of people outside, talking in hurried, panicked voices.

“sir?” Slim sounded nervous, gently shaking Blue by the shoulder a bit, apparently assuming he was still asleep.  
“I’M UP,” Blue yawned, sitting up on the couch he had passed out on. “WHAT’S GOING ON?”

“captain’s is evacuating the town.”  
“I THOUGHT IT WASN’T NECESSARY YET?” Slim shrugged as response.

Rubbing the sleep out of his eye sockets Blue made his way out of the door, Slim right on his heels, to find Undyne. She seemed to be going from door to door right now, including with some other monsters to spread the messages. He approached her promptly.

“Sans.”  
“MORNING UNDYNE!” The small skeleton greeted her. “WHAT’S ALL THIS ABOUT?”

“We’re evacuating the camp,” she told him, her voice getting that tone as if she was just reciting what she’d told the others hundreds of times before. “Until we’ve found this camp as safe we’re sending each away in small squads to the nothern and western camp.”  
“WHAT ABOUT THE EASTERN CAMP?” He asked curiously. He knew there were four camps in this area so far.  
“The eastern camp got… blown up by humans not too long ago.”  
“OH. IS THAT WHY-”  
“We’ve got the news last night. The eastern camp is too close to us, and with the recent sightings of humans in the area it’s not safe anymore.”  
“captain,” Slim asked, catching the fish monster’s attention. “are there any news on doggo’s squad?”

Her tense expression grew sad at that question. “Not really. We haven’t found either of them, but we found dust of one monster in the abandoned town two hours from here.”  
“that’s where-”  
“THAT COULD’VE BEEN ANYONE!” Blue interrupted the taller skeleton. “CAPTAIN, I’M GOING TO STAY HERE FOR WHEN STRETCH AND DOGGO COME BACK! WE’LL BE HEADING TOWARDS THE NOTHERN CAMP ONCE THEY DO.”  
“No.” Undyne replied. “Absolutely not.”  
“WELL, CAPTAIN,” the small skeleton replied, holding his ground. “I DID NOT ASK YOU FOR PERMISSION!”  
“Sans, I’m telling you this as a friend,” she said, crouching down to get closer to Blue’s height. “He’s probably dead. Waiting for your brother to… return, it’s useless. It’s just going to hurt more.”  
Well, what did she know!? Blue knew his brother better than _anyone_ else and he _knew_ his brother didn’t just get himself killed by some willy-nilly human in some willy-nilly abandoned town. He was alive, he knew that.

Blue took a deep breath to calm himself as Undyne stood up straight again. “THANK YOU FOR YOUR INSIGHT, CAPTAIN,” he said. “I THINK YOU’RE RIGHT. WAITING FOR HIM IS NOT GOING TO HELP ME.”  
“I’m glad you understand.”  
“I’M GOING TO HEAD OUT TOMORROW TO LOOK FOR HIM.”  
Undyne took a moment to take in his words. “Sans-”  
“GOOD LUCK WITH THE EVACUATION, CAPTAIN, I HOPE EVERYTHING WORKS OUT WELL FOR EVERYONE.”  
He went back to the house with that.

 

Blue’s favorite bag had a bright cyan color with a soft, fluffy fabric that got caught in the zipper more often than not, was decorated with cute badges and two key-chains, one in shape of a star and one of a bone. It was also very small.

“i believe stretch got a duffel bag in his room,” Slim told him. He was sitting cross legged on the floor as he watched Blue trying to stuff far too many necessities into his small handbag.

“TH-THANK YOU SLIM…,” Blue muttered. He had avoided going into Stretch’s room the past few days. He didn’t want to see it, but… He really needed a larger bag.

“i’ll get it for you, sir,” the taller skeleton said softly as he gently pushed past Blue to disappear into Stretch’s room. He must’ve sensed Blue’s turmoil.

The duffel bag was indeed far more handy. It was also far more hideous with it’s dirty greenish-brownish color. But moving the buttons and key-chains from his’ bag to Stretch’s made it a bit better.

“WHAT SQUAD DID UNDYNE ASSIGN YOU TO?” Blue asked in an attempt to stuff out his anxiety as he packed bandages and band-aids into the bag.

“pardon?”  
“WHAT CAMP WILL YOU BE GOING TO,” Blue elaborated. “I’M GOING TO HAVE TO HEAD TO ONE WHEN I FIND MY BROTHER AND IT’D BE NICE TO BE WITH YOU AGAIN!”

“i’m charmed, sir, but i’m going with you.”  
He had said it so lightly. Blue placed down the bag to turn to his brothers double.  
“NO?”  
“of course,” Slim said. “was that not the plan?”  
“I- I DON’T KNOW? SLIM YOU DON’T HAVE TO-”  
“i want to,” he told him, continuing to stuff everything useful into the bag as Blue seemed to stop doing so. “stretch would’ve wanted that, too. it’s not safe alone.”  
“ARE YOU… SURE?” Blue pressed worried. “I DON’T WANT YOU TO PUT YOURSELF AT RISK FOR MY SAKE.”  
“it’s the least i can do. you and your brother took me in and-” He seemed to space out for a second, his eye light wavering a little. For a moment Blue thought he was going to have one of his panic attacks again, but the tall skeleton seemed to catch himself quickly. “you’ve helped me at my worst, m’lord.”  
Blue… noticed the strange title. It wasn’t the first time Slim had addressed him as his ‘lord.’ He had corrected him once or twice, but every time he did it just seemed to trigger some sort of trauma in the skeleton, so Blue had decided to let it slip.  
“WELL THEN!” Blue said instead, trying to sound as optimistic as he could. “IF YOU’RE CERTAIN YOU WANT TO COME WITH ME, I’M NOT GOING TO STOP YOU!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [vote for the next chapter!](http://www.strawpoll.me/12820099)


End file.
